GOP talks backing half of Obama border request

Senior House Republicans are privately discussing a bill that would provide roughly half of the $3.7 billion that President Barack Obama has requested to combat an influx of migrants at the Texas border, according to multiple sources involved in the discussions.

No final decisions have been made, but the GOP legislation is also likely to include several policy changes, including revising a 2008 immigration law that made it tougher to deport children from countries other than Mexico or Canada. The Obama administration has expressed openness to such a provision, though it worries many congressional Democrats.

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House Republicans are also discussing language that would make it easier for Border Patrol agents to pursue illegal migrants at the border. The Obama administration designated roughly 500,000 acres of land near the border as a national monument, which the GOP says hampers law enforcement.

These discussions are ongoing, and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) along with incoming Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) are looking to Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas) for counsel. Granger, a member of the Appropriations Committee, leads a GOP border task force and updated fellow House Republicans on the group’s findings on Tuesday.

Her seven-member group was meeting with Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on Tuesday, and Granger said she wants to issue formal recommendations later Tuesday or early Wednesday morning.

“An average case of someone coming across the border illegally, going through the process that we have, will take between a year and a half or as long as five years,” Granger said Tuesday morning. “With 57,000 unaccompanied children, that’s just not acceptable. So we’ve got to change that.”

Separate from revising the 2008 anti-trafficking law, Granger and her group want to recommend adding immigration court judges — perhaps bringing some out of retirement — to ease the caseload, additional border-security measures, and bolstering National Guard presence at the border.

Boehner told reporters Tuesday morning he expects to have a clearer sense of his plan by the end of the week. Asked what he thinks should be done, Boehner said he has “lots” of ideas but declined to detail them.

The border bill is one piece of a suddenly complex July schedule for the House. The chamber will vote on a patch to the Highway Trust Fund this week, and is considering passing a stop-gap spending bill to prevent a shutdown in the fall before leaving for August recess. The Export-Import Bank will expire at the end of September and the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act must also be updated.

Boehner’s chamber will also pass a resolution to sue President Barack Obama for what they consider a misuse of his executive authority.

But the border crisis will dominate the July agenda. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell is briefing House Democrats Tuesday morning on the administration’s supplemental request.

About half of the $3.7 billion request is allocated to the health agency, which is charged with caring for the unaccompanied children.